The Sudden Rains and the Third Story
by whitelightning9999
Summary: A mysterious being has taken the past year's memories away from nine kids. When they cross paths and find that their town is in danger, they team up to find what's been taken from them and save Gravity Falls. Mystery Kids Fanfic.
1. Prologue

Some of the younger generation do not know about the superstition of The Rains. They were not old enough to remember how quick rains always brought bad luck to the town. The first record of these tales was about a lumberjack who was caught outside when the storm hit. They found him days later with his own axe stuck in his head. The second was the time when a couple was found half eaten in their home after The Rains, the words _three-part harmony_ carved into the wall. The third time, well, no one really knows what happened the third time. The only thing that matters was that The Rains suddenly hit and something terrible happened because of it. The End.

What, you want to know more about The Sudden Rains and the third story? Well, I don't know I mean it is rather long and… 5 bucks per listener. No, you cannot just go and Google search the story, and the money must be paid up front. Just put it in the jar labeled "Money Mr. Pines got for scamming bored people". Thank you.

Alright, on with the story.

It was a dark and stormy night. What, you have a problem with the story? Well I'm sorry that it isn't very creative. I mean the story is called _The Sudden Rains and the Third Story_. Yeah, well I don't care what you think you snot nose brat. Oh, so now you're going to cry to your mommy? I so scared. Just be sure to tell her that there are no refunds!

Anyways, where was I? Ah yes, It was a dark and stormy night. The rain had come without warning leaving many out in the harsh downpour…

* * *

The cursed water pelted him in the eyes as if the water itself knew the terrible crime he had just committed. However, the dark hooded figure knew he could not stop for the storm. He had to get as far away from those freaks as he possibly could. Quickly, he glanced over his shoulder to see if anyone was following him.

From that point on it all went downhill. His bicycle hit a tree root sticking out of the ground. The figure went soaring over the handlebars and into the mud. The glass objects that were stored inside his backpack came tumbling out, rolling into the flooded river.

* * *

Hello to the cool people reading the story. The next chapter will be posted in a few days but there is no set schedule for the postings. Have fun reading.

I don't own anything but the story line.

This fic is beta read by Ensignily.


	2. Chapter 1

The rain had lightened up to a drizzle now. Thankful for the turn of events, the young boy with a red hoodie and spiky hair stepped out from under the pine tree he was using for shelter. He turned on the flashlight he had found upon waking up and pointed it out at the dark forest.

Based on his calculations it was early morning. Like, really early: before-the-sun-rose-in-summer early; but that didn't stop the boy from wandering around in the rain looking for something. What he was looking for, he did not know. His last memories were of his family planning a camping trip and saying he could bring his friend along. This piece of information only furthered the mystery, but that mystery would have to wait. Right now he needed to get out of the storm.

Shining the flashlight around, he could see a small path through the woods. Seeing that it was the best option, the spiky haired boy followed the path.

* * *

It was not long before the spiky haired boy saw the light shining ahead along the path. Hoping that it might be someone he could talk to, the boy quickened his pace only to find a wood cabin in front of him.

The cabin looked like it had seen better days. On the side the boy could make out the words "Mystery Shack" with the S on the side of the roof. Upon further inspection the boy could see places where it looked like someone had broken through the wall and then tried their best to fix the damage.

Seeing that the light was on and it was a dry place the boy walked up the stairs and proceed to knock on the door. The force of the knock pushed the door open to show the inside of the building.

The inside of the shack looked like a tornado had come through: drapes were in tatters, metal racks were overturned, and various merchandise lay broken on the floor. The boy even thought he saw a few heads of jackalopes scattered around the mess. .

Worried, the boy proceeded to check the rest of the tourist trap but every room he entered was more destroyed than the last. With the atmosphere of the shack the boy was starting to feel like he was in one of the zombie movies he loved to watch so much.

Finally he reached the door to the gift shop. Timidly, the boy placed his small hand on the doorknob. He jumped as the house creaked. Slowly, he closed his eyes and hesitantly opened the door, expecting for the monster to jump out at him.

When he felt no presence he slowly opened his eyes to find a darkened room. Cautiously he walked into the room, the scattered pamphlets masked his foot steps. His hand following the wall for a light switch.

After awhile of searching he felt it on the wall. Light flooded the room to show the gift shop in the same state as the rest of the young boy sighed in relief, happy to not be trapped in another nightmare. Taking a step he tripped.

Turning around he found a girl with a muddy yellow rain coat lying on the floor. Her breath was too shallow to be normal.

"Hey are you okay?" the boy knelt down, hoping that she was just sleeping. When he got no response, the boy began to panic, shaking the girl even harder than before.

"Come on wake up." He received no answer, leaving the boy on his own in the ransacked building.

* * *

Tinted sunlight hit his eyes as he slowly started to wake up.

"Man, that was some show last night, wasn't it?" The boy said, slowly picking himself out of the mud.

He looked down at his green turtleneck and dark brown jacket, which were both covered in mud. His pants and his gloves of the same color were no exception to the mud, though his backpack, with it's colorful patches, remained spotless. On top of his head he wore an aviator helmet and his signature pair of red goggles covered his eyes.

"Huh, where did everybody go?" the boy wondered, finally noticing that he was alone in the wood.

"Anyone out there?" No response.

"Hello?" The boy tried once again, his eyes flew from tree to tree, trying to find anything he could recognize.

"Okay, calm down, this is not the first time that someone has woken up in a random location with no idea how they got here. It's just your first time." He reassured himself, finally taking off his goggles to reveal jade eyes.

"You just need to pick a direction and try to find civilization. That's what they do in the comic books after all … when did I start talking to myself this much?"

With that, the boy started to walk in a random direction hoping to find some sign that he was not hopelessly lost.

* * *

Next chapter, whoot!

I don't own anything but the story line.

This fic is beta read by Ensignily.


	3. Chapter 2

"hello" = character says something

'hello' = thoughts read by a psychic character

hello = unread thoughts

* * *

"Let go of my foot you stupid plant!" The boy with the goggles yelled.

With one last tug, the boy yanked his foot free, falling through a bush and into a clearing.

"Okay note to self: picking a random direction when lost in the middle of the woods is the worst idea ever!" The boy said, still talking to himself.

'Who just wanders alone in the middle of the forest like that' a voice said.

Startled, the boy with goggles turned around to see a boy wearing a white and blue hat with a pine tree printed on it. The hatted boy was sitting on top of a large bolder reading a red book.

The two boys stared at each other, each taking in the other appearance before one of them decided to speak up.

"So, umm, do you know the way out of these woods?" the boy with goggles asked.

The boy with the hat blinked. "Ah, no. not really. I think I hit my head or something, because the last thing I remember is going to sleep in my bed."

"Wait, so you don't remember anything either? Huh, I thought it was just me." The boy with goggles thought aloud. "So what are you going to do?"

"I'm sorry?"

"We both have no memories and are in the middle of nowhere. Surely you must be planning to do something."

The boy with the hat sighed. He just wanted to get back to the weird red book he found when he had woken up.

"My plan is to read and wait for an adult." the boy with the hat replied.

"Uh huh, and how is that book going to help us get out of these woods?"

"Who says I'm trying to get out of these woods? After all the smartest thing to do when you're lost is to stay where you are so an adult can come and find you!"

Both boys glared at each other. Seeing that neither was going to back down, the boy with the hat looked down at the book. The boy with goggles looked around the clearing, trying to come up with a better plan than wandering in a random direction.

It wasn't long before the goggled boy spoke up again. "So how do you know if an adult is looking for you?"

The other boy sighed but did not answer.

"I mean I typically leave my uh... house for a few days and after that my Dad will try to find me."

The boy with the hat stopped his reading. While it was true that his family would be looking for him, everything about the situation seemed wrong in his mind. For one, his family lived nowhere near a forest. Two, if he was lost, his sister would be nearby regardless of what trouble he had gone looking for. Finally, he knew that he had spent last night outside, thus making it at least five hours since he had gone missing. Even five hours was enough to find someone in the woods or at least start a search party, right?

Deciding that maybe the other kid had the right idea about looking for civilization, the boy with the hat slide down of the rock.

"Well then we should get going." The boy with the hat said.

"Huh?"

"Look although we should stay where we are normally, both of us have admitted to not knowing anything about the current situation. I think now it might be better to try to find a town or something where we might be able to find someone who can give us some answer. Are you with me?"

The goggled boy smiled "Yeah I'm with you. I'm Razputin, but you can call me Raz."

"Dipper." The other boy said smiling.

* * *

 _Ugh what hit me,_ the young girl thought. _And why are the lights on?_

Nearby the girl could hear someone else muttering. Looking in the direction of the noise, the girl saw a paled skinned girl with a yellow rain jacket on. The said girl was pacing back and forth, talking about how she would murder that boy next time she saw him.

Upon seeing that the girl was finally awake, the older girl knelt down.

"Hey are you okay?" The older girl asked. "I know you must be scared but everything will be okay. I'll get us out of here."

The younger of the two scoffed. _What does she think I am, a toddler? I could set her on fire if I wanted to._

The older girl, who had no idea what the younger was thinking, proceeded to inspect the girl for injuries.

 _Ok, she looks like she is not too young. Though those pig tails say otherwise. I'll have to get her out of here before that masked freak comes back._

"I'm Coraline Jones." the older girl said.

The younger girl proceeded to glare. Her fingerless gloves clenched in rage.

"Look, I promise I'm not going to hurt you. I just want to help you get back to your parents."

"Hurt me? As if a little girl like you could even touch me." The younger girl yelled and finally getting off the ground. "In fact, with a light-weight like you I could throw you around the room with my eyes shut."

"Well excuse me for trying to help you. I guess I didn't realize that a little baby like you needed her bottle when she got up for her nap." Coraline said, retaliating.

"Baby! Listen here you little blue-haired princess, you have two seconds to take that back before I take everything in this room, set it on fire and shove it up your-"

A cough stopped the younger girl before she could finish her sentence. In the doorway the boy with the spiky hair stood looking at the two girls.

"Um… I'm happy the two of you are up. I made some breakfast, if you want it." The boy said.

"Uh, thanks." Coraline said, happy to not be dealing with the other girl.

"Yeah thanks." The younger girl said while rolling her eyes at the boy.

The boy smiled. "I'm Norman, Norman Babcock. Do any of you know what went on in here?"

For the first time the two girls looked around the gift shop. Various pamphlets about local attractions were scattered around the room. The pig tailed girl even thought she saw a few faking looking snake scales scattered around the floor.

"No, sorry." Coraline answered.

"Oh, do you know where we are then?" Norman said, nervously scratching the back of his head.

The pigtailed girl picked up one of the pamphlet off the floor. "Gravity Falls," she read, looking at a pamphlet.

"Gravity Falls. I've heard of that place. It's supposed to be the most mysterious place in the world." Coraline said dramatically.

Norman shrugged. There went his idea about his parents taking him camping. Even with them recently accepting his power to talk to the dead they still never would take him to a place like Gravity Falls. Especially since it was across the country.

Norman turned his attention back to the youngest of the three . "So, what's your name?" He asked.

"Huh? Oh, it's Lili Zanotto."

At that moment the two girl's stomachs rumbled rather loudly.

"So, ah, about that breakfast?" Coraline asked, blushing.

Norman smiled and led them to where he had found the kitchen.

* * *

Yeah, new chapter. Hope you enjoy it.


	4. Chapter 3

Sweat ran down the boy's body as he ran. The tall shadows lurked over him. _If only I could run faster,_ the boy thought. _Or had a bike, or maybe one of those big Barbie doll cars. The ones that little girls ride around in._ The point was that the boy wanted to run faster.

A giggle came from behind him. The boy looked around, terrified at what he might see, only to find nothing there.

Slowing down, the boy opened his mouth, "Please, just leave me alone." His green eyes darted to every shadow his stalker might be able to hide in.

To the right of him a rock fell. Jumping, the poor kid looked at the source of the noise, backing away from it.

The giggle came again, this time from behind him. He spun around and came face to face with the source of his terror. With a grin on her face, the figure pulled the trigger. The boom could be heard from miles away.

Shocked, the boy stared at his attacker. Small little pieces of paper drifted down.

"Ha ha, you just got confetti!" The young girl cried. He looked down at the confetti cannon lying on the ground.

The young girl wore a simple black skirt and a teal sweater with a white ghost wrapping itself around the letters MK. In her hair, she had a teal headband to match the sweater.

"Hi I'm Mabel! I'm twelve and available! What's your name?" Mabel exclaimed after getting over her laughing fit.

The boy whom the question was directed at blinked. He had red curly hair and was rather overweight. He had on a pair of shorts, a yellow shirt and a blue blue football jacket, though the boy looked far too young to belong on a high school football team.

"Uh … my name's Neil," he introduced himself, nervously. "Where are we?"

The two preteens were in a junkyard full of discarded cars. Neil had woken up to the sound of Mabel wandering through the junkyard, only to run away screaming about how the witch's curse had come back.

"Not a clue, but hey! Want to climb to that dangerously tall pile of cars?" Mabel did not wait for an answer before running off. Neil shrugged but jogged after the girl.

By the time Neil caught up with Mabel she was already at the top of the cars.

"Y-You see anything?" Neil called up to her, trying to catch his breath.

"Hm. I see a water tower with a muffin on it. And a lake. Oh, I see a cliff with train tracks!" Mabel yelled back, squinting out at the scene around them.

"Can you tell where we are? Or maybe the way out of this junk yard?"

Mabel smiled. Taking out the grappling hook she had found when she woke up, she fired at some cars and jumped. Allowing the rope to take her weight, she swung down to where Neil was.

"The Mabel tour is now leaving!" Mabel announced, walking through the piles of cars and metal. Neil, amazed at what the hyper active girl just did, followed her without complaint.

* * *

The dark skinned boy paced back and forth. He had woken up in some dark alleyway about mid-morning. Since then he had been trying to find someone who could tell him what was going on. He thought back to what his grandma had said he should do if he was ever lost.

"Just find the police and they'll help you get back home, where I will be waiting to lecture you for getting lost in the first place!" He said to himself, imitating his grandma.

The boy sighed. "Great. There's just one problem with that, grandma. No one is here!" The boy was in a police office. All around him were pictures of two cops doing things that only couples would normally do. A few case files about missing people lay on the desk.

 _Now what am I supposed to do?_

The door behind him jingled, snapping the boy out of his thoughts.

"Hey-o is anyone here?" A female voice cried out.

A boy's voice followed. "Mabel, I don't think you should be that loud. They could be really mean cops…."

The dark skinned boy shrugged. _At least I have company now._ He walked back out to the entrance of the police station.

"No one is here," he told the two without greeting.

"What? I was hoping to ride around in a police car!" Mabel yelled. "Oh well. Let's get some pie! "

Both boys stared at the girl in utter confusion.

"Actually pie sound pretty good" Neil said, following Mabel out the door.

The dark skinned boy followed them out the door. Realizing that he could get no help at the police station, he grabbed his custom bicycle leaning against the police station. As he turned to leave the town, he looked back at the two kids.

 _Why do I feel like I will be abandoning everyone if I leave?_ Sighing, he wheeled his bicycle around.

He caught back up with the other two, catching the conversation about a diner Mabel had seen.

As they walked on the boy looked around the town. The town looked like it was rather old with a few new buildings added in between decades.

Turning his head, the dark haired boy locked on to the shop window next to him. In the window stared an African American kid that wore a black fireman's jacket with light jeans. He held himself at a slouch and his head was tilted like it usually was. The kid's green eyes were the same as the boy remembered.

But there was one thing that bothered the boy about his reflection. _Am I taller?_

"Why did you stop?" Mabel asked, popping in front of the boy.

The boy jumped and fell backwards. He turned his head to see Neil looking at him as well.

"D-Do you know what d-day it is today?" The boy asked, his stutter getting the better of him.

Mabel smiled. "Of course – it's Wednesday!"

"No I m-mean what d-day of the m-month." He tried again.

Neil frowned. "It's November 14th isn't it?"

Mabel frowned at this statement. "No, yesterday was January 23rd."

"I t-think it was August 5th." The boy said. "W-why do we all remember different days?"

"I think there's only one way to find out." Mabel grinned and headed to the nearest newspaper dispenser. She pulled out the paper on the top of the stack and looked for the date. "It says July 12, 2012. Well, that's a about half a year of my life gone."

"I-I think we might have amnesia" the boy thought aloud, "but three cases of amnesia at the same time is very rare."

"So what happens now? Do we find a hospital?" Neil asked.

"I didn't see a hospital when I was looking around." Mabel answered.

"Why don't we go and get that pie now? I'll buy." Mabel said, waving around a ten dollar bill she had found in her pocket.

"Yeah, pie." Neil echoed, his spirits lowered with the recent news.

The new addition to the group nodded. "I-I think I'll get mine with a scoop of ice cream. My name is Wybie by the way."

* * *

"Dipper, do you think we should have found something by now?" It was now late afternoon and the two boys were walking on an uphill slope.

"I have no idea, Raz." Dipper was now thankful that he had a sister like Mabel growing up. This Raz kid was always asking questions. The first few questions were fine, but after the five hundredth question he was starting to get annoyed.

"Oh! Maybe we are victims of a child kidnapping case and it was only us who got away but we both hit our head so we don't remember anything. That would also explain why we don't know where we are."

"In that case wouldn't the kidnapper be after us?"

"Well maybe he…" Raz started, but slowed to a stop.

Dipper stopped and looked at Raz. Considering how much he was blabbering on about earlier, Dipper got the feeling that very few things could get Raz to stop talking.

"Everything okay?" Dipper asked after a few seconds. Dipper waited for the boy to acknowledge his question. Maybe it was just that he had grown used to the constant chatter, but the new silence was unnerving.

"Raz, come on, we need to keep moving." Dipper tried again.

Raz stood there in silence, staring out at the forest in front of them.

"Raz?"

"We need to run." Raz whispered, his voice taking on an edge that Dipper hadn't heard since he meet the kid back in the clearing. "We need to run now."

With that, Raz grabbed Dipper's hand and began running straight ahead.

"What? What's going on?" Dipper asked, very confused about Raz's new attitude.

A howl came from behind the boys, giving Dipper his answer. Bounding out of the bush came a lone wolf, fully planning on eating the two boys for dinner.

 _Oh gosh, oh gosh, gosh,_ Dipper thought to himself as he looked back at the wolf.

"Come on, Dipper!" Raz called, glancing back at the boy.

Dipper looked back at Raz, and then noticed where they were running towards. This entire time, they had been running towards a huge cliff. "RAZ, STOP!" Dipper shouted, stopping dead in his tracks.

"What?" Raz turned back around and watched as his feet ran off the edge of the cliff. " **Oh no.** "

"Raz!" Dipper could only watch as his companion fell. Dipper ran until he was at the edge of the cliff and looked down. However, he couldn't see where the boy went. His mind was racing with thoughts. _Did Raz just die? Is it my fault for not seeing the cliff in time? What am I going to do now?_ Dipper's thoughts were interrupted when he heard the growl of the wolf nearing behind him. Taking a deep breath, Dipper turned around, ready to somehow fight the wolf.

 _I can fight a wolf, right? I mean people on TV do it all the time, and I just need to walk away from it. Yeah, come on, you can do this Dipper!_

Dipper quickly scanned his surroundings, trying to figure out what to do, and at the last second grabbed a nearby tree branch just as the wolf lunged. The wolf, expecting to taste the boy's flesh, only got a mouthful of tree bark. To avoid further injury, the wolf bounced back, its teeth bared in rage.

Knowing the trick would not work again, Dipper dropped the tree branch and ran to the nearest tree. However, the boy was not as lucky this time, and tripped on a rock. The wolf was on Dipper in a second, its yellow eyes staring down at the boy trapped under its hairy body.

Below the wolf, Dipper had curled up into a ball, protecting his body with his arms and legs. He shut his eyes tight as he tried his best to ignore the beast on top of him.

The wolf opened its mouth for the killing blow. That's when it happened.

Something crashed into the wolf, making it tumble off of Dipper and over the edge of the cliff.

"That will teach you to mess with us!" Raz yelled.

Dipper, realizing the wolf was gone, slowly uncurled himself to see Raz doing a victory dance next to the cliff.

"How… wha… You should be dead!" Dipper shouted.

Raz, realizing what he was doing, stopped his victory dance. "Uh, there was a branch on the cliff and, I uh, grabbed it. Yeah, that's what I did."

Dipper shook his head, but seeing that there was no other logical explanation he simply shrugged and looked out over the view the cliff offered. In the afternoon light, he could make out a road and a sign that said "Gravity Falls" below them.

"Hey Dipper, I see a town!" Raz yelled, looking off the other end of the cliff.

Dipper turned around to see that Raz was right. Glad that they at least had some idea where to go now, Dipper started to head down the cliff.

"Hey! Where are you going?" Raz yelled at Dipper.

"To the town" Dipper yelled back, laughing. "You coming?"

Raz looked down at his hands, then snapping himself out of his thoughts, ran to catch up with Dipper.

* * *

Lili sat at the table swinging her legs back and forth. In front of her was a small potted plant. The other two companions had gone outside to see what was around the house. Coraline said how they needed to get out of here and back to their families while Norman was just dragged along for the ride.

 _To her credit, she did wait until late afternoon to try to drag us out of the house. Not that I would ever like her though._ Lili thought, quickly shaking her head. _She way too bossy and acts like Coach Oleander._

Lili smiled thinking about the midget Coach. She had been going to Camp Whispering Rock for years now perfecting, her psychic powers and meeting kids like her. She had already master the basics of what all psychics had to before they went on to become agents.

 _The only reason I'm not a psychonaut is because dear old Dad thinks I'm not ready,_ Lili thought bitterly, _but this time I'll prove to him I can take care of myself, and what better place to do it than Gravity Falls. Maybe I can find that monster that drives people insane when they look into its eyes. Then all I have to do is bring it to Dad and he has to make me an agent!_

With her plan in mind, Lili turned back to the plant on the table. _Now let's see if you know anything._

Using one of her favorite psychic power, herbaphony, she started to 'talk' to the plant.

' _Hello,'_ Lili thought toward the plant.

'Forgot.' The words from the plant entered Lili's mind.

' _Forgot? What do you mean? Did you forget something?'_ Lili tried again.

'Forgot' the plant repeated.

Lili would have kept pressing the forgetful plant, but out of the corner of her eye she saw Coraline staring at her.

"What?" Lili snapped at the blue haired girl.

"We're ready to go." Coraline spoke, trying hard this time to not lose her temper.

"If you think I'm just going to walk out of here with you–"

"What **is** your plan, then?" Coraline asked, cutting Lili off. "From what I can see, no one is coming back to this dump."

"How do you know that?" Lili said.

"Well for one, we waited all day, and Norman said he was here since 5 in the morning and no one was here. And two, we are taking the only vehicle here. So unless you want to live at some random tourist attraction for the rest of your life I suggest you come with us."

Lili groaned but walked to the older girl. Coraline smirked, knowing she won the argument.

Seeing the grin, Lili spat out, "I'm only coming with you until we find some kind of adult."

Coraline rolled her eyes but led Lili out of the shack.

Sitting in front of the shack was a golf cart that looked like it had recently had an upgrade. Norman was sitting in the passenger seat smiling at the two girls. When Coraline had gone to get Lili, he was sure that they would get into a fight.

"So who's driving this hunk of junk?" Lili asked, unimpressed with the escape vehicle.

Coraline and Norman looked at each other.

"I thought you knew how to drive." Coraline said

"I don't know how to drive, I thought you knew how to drive." Norman said.

Lili rolled her eyes. "Coraline, you get in the back. Norman, you're the navigator." She said getting into the driver's seat. Because of her training she was required to learn how to drive a car, so a golf cart should be no problem.

Coraline, shocked that a girl younger than her could drive, kept her mouth shut and got into the back seat of the car.

Soon the three of them were traveling at high speeds down the dirt road. Coraline and Lili smiling with the feeling of wind in their faces and Norman trying to look at the map they had stolen from the Mystery Shack.

* * *

Been bogged down with school stuff but hey new update right! Will try to post more over the Winter Break.

Hope you enjoyed the Chapter.


	5. Chapter 4

Coming over the hill in the golf cart, Lili, Coraline, and Norman had little time to react to the hooded figure in the middle of the road.

Stepping on the brakes as hard as she could, Lili managed to stop right before she hit the figure.

Coraline was the first one to recover. Looking at the boy she saw that he was likely a teenager and was not the same hooded figure that had kidnapped her. In his hands, he carried three glass containers.

"Oh come on. You freaks should not have gotten up that fast." The teen said. At the word **freaks** , Norman and Lili flinched.

 _Definitely a teenager._ Coraline thought. _And he seems to be working with the kidnapper._

Coraline grabbed a golf club from the cart running towards the guilty party. The teenager took one look at the girl and her companions then ran away screaming, dropping the glass containers on the road.

Coraline scolded. _Men can be such babies._ She turned around and saw Norman inspecting the three glass objects.

"What are they?" Norman asked. He picked one up and turned it around in his hands.

"Whatever they are that guy seemed to really want them." Coraline said.

"We should take them and set them on fire." Lili said with a huge smile on her face.

"Now hold on, let's not jump to any conclusions." Norman said. "That guy seemed like he knew something about the three of us, even though I've never seen him before. Don't you think that is a bit suspicious?"

"Sounds kind of like a super villain." Lili interjected.

"Maybe but we don't know that for sure. He could be just someone who wants to help. I think we should return these things or use them against him somehow." Norman continued.

"If he wants to help, then we'll give them back, and if not, we use them as bargaining chips. " Coraline responded, putting one of them inside her bag and throwing another to Lili.

Lili rolled her eyes but put the glass cylinder in her own bag while Norman stored the one he was inspecting inside his hoodie pocket.

Coraline smiled as she got back into the cart. This kidnapping case was getting better by the second. Her other two companions had on similar expressions, each thinking the exact same thing.

 _Onwards to adventure,_ the three thought as they traveled off into the sunset.

Mabel's group arrived at the diner. Similar to the police station, the diner was completely abandoned, so the three ate the pie that was left out on the counter and dropped the money in its place once they were done. After that, they roamed around town looking at the buildings around them, like the library and a laser tag place. The fact that there were no adults anywhere did not seem to slow the female of the group down at all.

"Oh let's check out this place!" Mabel gasped, pointing to the Museum. Without waiting for an answer, she bounded into the building.

"Where does she get all that energy from?" Neil asked. Upon running around town he learned that during the months that he could not recall he had apparently become more fit and was surprisingly able to keep up with the girl if he was just walking.

The other boy shrugged. Parking his bike at the bicycle rack he followed Mabel in. They had learned quite a few facts about the town running around. Wybie now knew that they were in a place called Gravity Falls, not too far from where he and his grandma lived.

They entered the building to find Mabel staring at a poster with some blond haired kid with puppets on his hands. The picture had been horribly defaced at one point. Wybie and Mabel thought the best part of the defacing was that someone had drawn a speech bubble with the words "I kiss puppets".

Noticing that the two boys were behind her, Mabel spun around. "Guys, I had a great idea! Let's play hide and go seek! The rules will be that you can't leave town and you can't move from your hiding spot once you have chosen it!"

Wybie smiled. "Sure, I guess it could be fun."

"I'm in." Neil said.

"I'll be it." Mabel cried. Without allowing anyone to question her she turned around and started to count. "1… 2… 3…"

Neil yelped and ran into the museum to try to find a hiding spot.

Wybie thought about telling Mabel she should just wait in a room until the time was up but thought better of it, running after Neil.

"100" Mabel yelled. Upon finishing the girl ran out the doors where the street lights were just turning on.

"Okay, unless I'm mistaken, aren't towns support to have people living in them?" Coraline asked.

The trio had gotten to town around nightfall, having taken several bad turns. Now they were driving around, looking for anyone who might be able to help them.

"Let's try the diner over there," Norman suggested. Throughout the drive Norman had to break up the many arguments between the two girls. Now, entering the place of their destination and not find a human or ghost, Norman was starting to get a bit creeped out.

Lili, fed up with driving, turned the little golf cart into one of the parking places.

They opened the door and found that the small diner was about as messy as the Mystery Shack. Some food was even left on the tables.

"It looks like everyone just vanished." Norman commented as he peeked behind the counter into the kitchen.

"Maybe after getting into a fight." Lili observed, glancing down at broken chairs on the floor as well as other various bits of debri.

Coraline ignored the two, looking around with her own eyes. "Well this looks like a great mess we've landed in. Any ideas?"

The younger two looked back at Coraline, shaking their heads.

Coraline sighed, "Look, we came to this town looking for someone to help us. Now that we are here we haven't seen one person, child or adult, around this stupid place. I don't know about you but I think we need to take some action before whoever did this comes back for us. So are you with me?"

Lili sighed. "You might be pushy and annoying, and normally I would never want to work with someone like you, but yeah, I'm with you." Lili agreed, shaking the other girl's hand.

Norman smiled. "I'm with you, too. So what is our first plan of action?"

"We should find out what's happening and see if we can find some survivors."

"I have some walkie talkies," Lili pitched in, pulling them out of her bag. The other two members of their party gave her a weird look. "What? I stole them from the Shack."

"Seeing as this place is a ghost town, I don't think anyone will care what we take." Coraline said, grabbing the device. "But since we have walkie talkies, we can split up safely. If you find anyone or the person responsible, report it into the walkie talkie and we'll come to you.. We'll meet back here in 2 hours to report our findings."


	6. Chapter 5

The two boys trudged on through the forest. The two of them were covered in new bug bites and sweat. Both of them had taken off their jackets in an attempt to shed some of the heat.

"We'll stop here for the night." Dipper said as they came to a clearing his body shaking from what was probably a ten mile hike. Behind him, Raz fell face first onto the forest floor.

Seeing that his companion was as (if not more) exhausted as he was, Dipper decided to wait a few minutes before enlisting the boy's help to set up camp.

 _I should see what's around us,_ Dipper thought to himself. Careful not to lose track of where Raz was, Dipper began to wander around the area around them. As he walked, he made a mental checklist of what they'd need for the night.

 _Water? Check,_ He thought as he came upon a small river. The river was running at a quick pace and the water looked relatively clear and clean, so Dipper took a small drink before moving on. _Now, we just need something to carry it in. Maybe I can make something out of grass like Mabel did last summer._

A little farther away, Dipper mentally checked off food as he found a small cluster of bushes with white rose-smelling flowers. On the stems were red and white berries.

After collecting a handful of berries and putting them in his pocket, Dipper walked back to Raz, only to find that the boy still had not moved from his spot. Dipper sighed and nudged Raz with his shoe.

"Go away," Raz moaned, determined not to move until the sun had set and risen again.

"Raz, come on, we need to get camp set up before the sun goes down."

Raz glanced up at Dipper. Although he was not sure, Raz got the feeling that Dipper was used to walking like this everyday, while he was used to a more flexible exercise.

Raz sighed, knowing that the stubborn boy wouldn't let him fall asleep, and pushed himself off the ground and landed on his feet, like the acrobat that he was.

"So what do we still need to do?" Raz asked.

"Not much. I found a small river nearby that we can get water from, and it's clean and tasted fine, although we need something to carry it in. If we had a water bottle we could use that, but–"

"Find a water bottle, check. " Raz interrupted. "What next?"

"Uh, we need a fire, too. One that will last through the night."

"What about food?"

"I already found some" Dipper said, reaching into his pocket and holding the berries out for Raz to see.

Rax looked at the berries, then looked back up at Dipper. He then repeated this until Raz realized that Dipper was indeed serious and that the boy wasn't about to die on the spot.

"Uh … I hate to burst your bubble Dipper, but that's Baneberry. It's kind of ... highly poisonous." Raz said, scratching the back of his neck.

Dipper yelled and dropped the berries on to the forest floor. He then proceeded to wipe his hands over his orange shirt.

"Oh man, I really thought–"

"It's fine. I only know since my Dad and I travel a lot."

"You seem rather close to your Dad." Dipper commented.

"Yeah, well my Mom drowned when I was four, so my Dad's all I have left. Now let's see what we have in here." Raz said, quickly changing the subject. He threw back Dipper's vest that was stored in his backpack and then reached in the front section.

"Score! A bag of trail mix!" Raz said excitedly, pulling out the mixture of nuts and berries, holding it up for Dipper to see. Hoping to find even better food, the boy started looking through the rest of his bag.

Across from him, Dipper had rummaged through his own pockets. He made extra sure to check the pockets that Mabel had added after he bought the vest – she made a big fit of there being no pockets and decided to sew some in herself. Like Raz, he too had a similar bag of trail mix. The words 'to my little brother' were written on the bag in his sister's handwriting.

"Wow, what do you think this is?" Raz asked. In his hands was a strange object that could only be described as a vacuum with a claw.

"It looks like you can shoot stuff with it, so maybe it's some kind of weapon?" Dipper suggested.

"Maybe," Raz said, grabbing the next item, which happened to be some small candies.

"Are they edible?" Dipper asked, staring at the almost gas-like candies inside the wrapper.

Raz stared at the candies before stuffing them inside his pants pocket. Somewhere in the back of his head a voice was telling him not to give the candies to anyone. "I don't think so," was all he said in response.

Soon the two boys were at the last item in Raz's backpack. They noticed a lot of strange items in his bag, so they created a game to guess what it was. Throughout the game they started taking bets on if the item would either something a normal person would carry around, something that they had no idea where you would even buy it, or something that a superhero might carry around.

"Has to be something a superhero would carry around." Dipper guessed, since most of the other items seemed to have that answer as well.

"No way, that was the last item. It has to be something you can't buy," Raz argued as he pulled out the last item.

The item was definitely not what either of the boys expected. In his hand, Raz held up something that looked like used to be a piece of meat in a plastic bag. The meat, although covered in a sickly green mold, was unmistakably bacon.

"Ew," the two boys said at the same time. Not wanting to look at it any longer, Raz shoved the bacon to the very bottom of his bag.. Even if he wanted to get rid of it, he still felt the unexplainable feeling that told him to keep everything he found in his bag.

"Well that made as much sense as the tiny door." Dipper commented, not wanting to even question why Raz put the bacon back in the backpack. "So, do you want to start the fire or get the water fro-"

"Fire!" Raz yelled, jumping up from where he was putting his stuff back into his bag.

Dipper blinked, not sure what to make of Raz's reaction. "All right then." He said, picking up the water bottle they had found in Raz's backpack. "I'll be back in a few" Dipper voiced, walking back to where he had found the river.

It did not take long for Raz to put together a basic campfire. Now all he had to do was light the pile of wood and he would be done before Dipper even came back with the water. He stood there in silence for a few moments, not sure what to do next. In retrospect, it would have been easier if he had something to make a spark.

"Stupid pile of wood," Raz mumbled at the fire, lightly kicking at it with his foot.

As if by magic, the campfire roared up in Raz's face, causing the boy to jump back a few feet right as Dipper walked back with the water.

* * *

"Have you found anything?" Norman asked over the walkie talkie.

"Negative." Coraline replied over the speaker.

"Agh," Lili groaned, "how long have we've been looking?"

"About an hour." Norman said, turning down the volume of his radio so he wouldn't hear the two girls bickering.

The spiky-haired boy sighed. He had already checked the library and most of the other buildings on the block. He was now standing in front of the Museum, his flashlight illuminating the sign.

Begrudgingly, the boy walked into the building only to find the lights on. _But still empty,_ he thought. Even though they had been searching for an hour, none of them could find a living being in the small town. _Or a dead one_.

Turning the corner, Norman came upon an exhibit dedicated to a sci-fi movie of some sort. The weirdest thing about the exhibit was a figure in the corner. It had on a fireman's coat and a welding helmet with three green eyes. Norman stopped walking, looking closer at the figure. From his distance he could see the slight rising and falling of the figure's chest.

Norman ran back around the corner. Turning up his walkie talkie, he pressed the talk button.

"Guys, I think I found someone." Norman whispered, trying to keep his voice from trembling too much.

"I'll be right over, where are you?" Coraline's voice came through the speaker.

"The Museum, I'm by the Miner's section."

It took about 15 minutes for Coraline to get to Norman. By looking at her, Norman could tell she had sprinted her way to where he was.

After letting her catch her breath, he asked. "Where's Lili? Is she coming?"

Coraline straightened up. "No, I think she turned off her talkie. Now where is this person?"

"Over here." Norman led Coraline to the three eyed mask person.

Upon turning the corner, Coraline's face lit up in recognition. _It's that boy!_ She realized.

"Coraline, why did we stop?" Norman whispered from behind the girl.

Upon remembering the boy Coraline reached backwards, grasping his red hoodie sleeve, hoping to find some comfort. Her eyes glanced around the room, making sure that no trap awaited the two of them. _Okay, now I just need to get Norman away from here. He might not recognize the boy but I can't risk putting him in danger._

As Coraline backed up to take Norman out of the building, the two of them heard the sleeping figure stir.

Not wanting to risk having reinforcements called, she immediately grabbed the nearest object, which happened to be a mace, and swung it at the boy.

Wybie fell out of his chair to avoid the mace coming for his head. He then proceeded to grab the mace and pull it out of Coraline's hand. No longer armed, Coraline threw herself at Wybie.

Norman stood over the scene. He was shocked that one of his new friends would just ambush a random person. He hooked his arms around Coraline and pulled her away, knowing the fight would only get worse if he didn't step in.

After getting the two apart, Norman put himself between the two.

"What was that?" Norman asked, his eyes on Coraline, anticipating another attack.

"Stand down, kid." Coraline spat in a hate filled voice.

"Not until you tell me what's going on." Norman retaliated.

"Ah D-dude I don't know what this is about b-but please keep that g-girl away from me." Wybie said nervously, eyes darting between the two.

"Like hell you do." Coraline shouted and launched herself at Wybie again.

Norman blocked Coraline before she could make it to Wybie. "Coraline! Please stop!"

Coraline took a deep breath and relaxed, finally coming to her senses and realizing why she couldn't just attack the boy.. "That kid is reasonable for kidnapping us, Norman."

"Kidnapping? Coraline, you're not making any sense."

"I remember him. He was riding around on the hill top on that weird bike wearing that exact outfit. He rode toward me and that's the last thing I remember! He's the one who did all this!"

"If he's the kidnapper, then you want to explain how a boy your age took you all the way to Gravity Falls in the span of a few hours on a bicycle!" Norman shouted, finally getting fed up with being yelled at.

Coraline stopped struggling. She looked over at the boy and saw that his face had gone white, he was shaking a little, and his helmet had fallen to the ground.

"Thank you. Now can we just – **ACK** _!_ " Norman was interrupted by a two ton weight knocking him to the ground. Cloth covered parts of the weight wrapped around the skinny boy preventing him from getting up.

Norman twisted his head to look at the mysterious figure. He relaxed when he saw the face of his best friend, despite the boy squeezing the life out of him.

Neil had found his friend by following the sound of arguing voices, one of which that was familiar – Norman.

"Oh My Gosh Norman You're Here You Would Not Believe What I Have Been Through Today First I Was Chased By This Really Hyper Active Girl And Then–." Neil would have kept on going but Norman decided to cut the boy off.

"Hey Neil," Norman greeted, smiling down at his friend.

Their reunion and rising questions were cut off by the crackle of the walkie talkie. "Guys, we need to meet up."

* * *

"Have you found anything?" Norman's voice came over the walkie talkie.

"Negative" Coraline responded.

"Agh, how long have we've been looking?" Lili complained into the little black box. Now that she was away from the two she could use her powers without fear of getting into trouble. Currently she was jumping from roof top to roof top on a clear pink sphere.

Although she was not a master at it, she was pretty good at her levitation power. Not as good as Milla back at the agency, but she was skilled enough to bounce long distances. When needing to go long distances she could use the power to go about 80 mph.

"About an hour," she heard Norman reply.

"Look, I know this might not be–" The voice was cut off by Lili turning off her walkie talkie. She was so sick of hearing the older girl's voice. Plus, being able to use her powers like this just felt so right. If she was at school or anywhere with normal people (and a few agents), she would have to hide her power in fear of being teased or punished by her father.

Sighing, the preteen lowered herself down into an alley only to have someone slam into her.

"Watch where you're going you–" Lili turned around to find an old man rubbing his head.

The old man was dressed in a brown pair of overalls. He had a cast on his arm and a cowboy hat. On his beard was a band aid and his eyes were off to the sides, making Lili unsure if he was even looking at her. He looked – and smelled – like he hadn't showered in forever.

"She a-coming" The man jumped up and yelled, "she coming to get us all!"

Lili raised an eyebrow.

"She's a-coming to cocoon us in her bile of schist where we shall forever stay in wait! But she won't get me. Oh no, because I have this!" The old man reached into his beard to pull out….

"An egg beater?" Lili questioned. _Great, the first grown-up I meet is some crazy hobo._ "Well, it was nice meeting you. Do you know if there is anyone else around here?" Lili asked in her nicest tone possible, which pretty much sounded like she was grinding rocks while talking.

"Nope. They were all taken by her. But they won't take me!" At this, the old man laughed at the sky. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to get back to my hiding place before she comes back."

With that, the old man scurried on all fours up to the roof Lili had just jumped off of.

"Oh, if you need me just yell out my name and I'll be there faster than a bangtail on base burner!" the old man called down, grinning down at the girl in a way that even if it was friendly, it didn't quite look it. With that, the crazy old man scurried away.

"Fat chance I'd call for you even if I did know your name!" Lili yelled back.

"Ah ha! I found you!" A voice cried.

Lili turned around to see a girl with brown hair and a blue sweater pointing at her. "Okay, does everyone here just come out at night or something?" Lili cried out in frustration. She was reaching her limit and setting someone on fire was starting to look pretty good right now.

The girl blinked. "Not a clue. Do you think they might be all vampires or something? That would totally be the perfect first boyfriend!"

The girl, realizing that she had no idea who this person was decided that she should try to help her, or maybe get her to join in on the hide and go seek game she had been playing.

"Hi I'm Mabel!" She greeted cheerfully, sticking out her hand.

Lili blinked and started at the hand. "Lili," she said after a few moments, shaking Mabel's hand. "You know where everyone is?"

"Nope. I haven't found anyone here. It's just me, Wybie, and Neil. Oh, and now you!"

"Joy. So where are the rest of your companions?"

"Well. We were playing hide and go seek, but they must be really good at it. Definitely better than my brother."

Lili smiled. Even if she did not remember meeting this girl before, she felt a strange connection with her, as if they had already met before.

"Hey, I have a question. What's today's date?" Mabel asked suddenly.

"Huh? What kind of question is that?"

"An important one." Mabel replied, spinning in a circle. Her arms raised way above her head. A grin stretched across her face, showing off her silver braces.

"Yeah, but can't you just look it up or–?" Lili's eyes averted to something over Mabel's shoulder. "Watch out!" Lili screamed and knocked Mabel to the ground.

"Shit!" Lili looked up to see the teenager they had almost run over earlier that day. In his hands he was holding a weird ray gun that he had just used to fire at Mabel. Seeing that his hiding place was compromised, the boy ran out of the alleyway.

Lili and Mabel quickly got to their feet and chased after their attacker.

The teenager turned around and yelped at the sight of the two girls quickly approaching him. He turned forward and darted to the left into another alleyway. The two girls caught up with him just to see him about to reach the top of a fence.

"Oh no you don't!" Lili yelled, grabbing him with her psychic powers. "Tell me what's going on or I'll set you on fire!"

"Pfft, as if you could get anything out of me." the teen retorted.

At this, Lili threw a regular punch, stopping it short just of his face. Even if it was just a scare tactic she did get a nice "please don't hurt me" whimper from the teen.

Mabel stood there watching the scene unsure of what to say, as she uncomfortably played with her hands. . Even if she was a people person, she had no objection to Lili's scare tactics.

"Look, I'm going to ask this one more time. Tell me what is happening or else," Lili threatened, lighting her hand on fire.

"No – she'll get me if I tell you." Tthe teen choked out, kicking out with his leg.

The result was instantaneous. The teen's shoe came flying off his foot and knocked a trash can into some loose boards propped up against the wall behind them. The boards fell over onto the two girls. Lili's concentration broke as the boards fell on the two. Without her focus on her levitation, the teen was able to escape from the psychic grip. By the time they got free of the rubble, the teen had long since vanished into the night, taking his weird gun with him.

Lili heaved a sigh and pulled out her walkie talkie. She turned it on and spoke, "Guys, we need to meet up."

* * *

Night had settled across the forest. The two boys were now settled around a campfire, lost in their own activities. Dipper was once again reading his journal, leaving Raz to provide his own source of entertainment.

Raz considered attempting to get Dipper to play another game with him; after all, the two of them seemed to be getting along.

 _I've never had a friend before._ Raz thought to himself. Back at home, his life at the circus left him with very little time to hang out with kids his own age. Anyone that Raz considered a friend would usually abandon him when they learned about his powers. The fact that Dipper still had yet to figure out anything about his abnormalities both excited and worried him.

 _But who knows how long I can keep that charade up. I have already lost control twice today and Dipper is too smart to not know that something is up,_ Raz thought. In his head, the images of him bouncing up the cliff face replayed, along with him creating the fire. After Dipper had come back, Raz had been able to lie that his Dad had taught him how to create fires really quickly. Raz could tell that Dipper didn't really buy it, just like the cliff incident.

 _I need to get these outburst under control. I could hurt someone if I'm not careful. And what would Dad say if he found out? Probably something along the lines of, 'Son I am very disappointed in you'. Then I would be forced to train until I passed out,_ Raz thought bitterly. _But it's not like it's my fault I've never had any help! No one has ever tried to teach me anything about these powers and the only thing I know is that physic hand trick I learned._

Raz groaned and looked up at the night sky. _Maybe I can get over this before I get back home. Maybe Dad will never know about my powers going crazy._ With that last thought, Raz turned over and let his body finally sleep.

Dipper turned away from his book and glanced over at the younger boy. Although he was trying to keep his cool, he was honestly pretty freaked out now. The two of them had heard nothing since they had started walking. By now they should have at least heard some sort of search party. They **were** near a town, right?

There was also Mabel. They might have been drifting apart for the last few years, but Dipper couldn't help but wonder if his sister was alright. For all he knew, she could be out there as well. What if she was hurt – or worse, _dead_ – and he had been wasting his time out here with some random kid with amnesia.

"Not like I have much right to talk. Hopefully tomorrow will be better," Dipper whispered to himself as he too turned it in for the night.

The only noise they heard before they had fallen asleep was the crackling of the pyrokinesis-created fire.

In the tree branches above, a pair of blue eyes watched the two boys.

* * *

Sorry for the slow updates. These last few years have been filled with writter's block and school. Ugh.

Anyways over this Summer I hope to sit down and work on this fic but currently I have no plans of abandoning it.

I don't own anything but the story line.

This fic is beta read by Ensignily.


	7. Chapter 6

Warning: Cliffhanger ahead

* * *

"Here's dinner!" Mabel cried, balancing six plates in her hands and making her way out from the kitchen, Norman and Neil following behind her.

Wybie looked down at the weird looking food. "Is it editable?"

"Yep!" Mabel said, taking a bit of the food.

"She's not a bad cook," Norman commented, sitting down at the booth. "You just need to make sure she doesn't add glitter to the dish."

Coraline poked at the food with her fork and grumbled. Norman, Neil, Wybie, and her had entered the dinner only for Mabel to grab two of them to go and help make dinner. The rest of them had just sat down and waited for the food.

Deciding to discuss the elephant in the room, Coraline opened her mouth. "So does anyone have any idea what is going on here?"

Mabel paused. Taking a deep breath she asked the question, "What is today's date?"

Coraline blinked, having expected an answer rather than another question. "What?"

"What is so important about the date?" Lili snapped, having still not answered the question from before.

"It's August the 5th." Coraline said, ignoring Lili.

Lili blinked. "Are you so stupid that you can't remember what day it is?" She yelled at Coraline.

"What? I'm stupid? Take a look at you!"

"GUYS!" Norman yelled, breaking up the fight once again. Once the two stopped, he spoke again, "I remember it being January 24th. Isn't it kind of weird that none of us can agree on the date?"

The three turned to look at the others. Wybie sighed and took out the newspaper he had gotten earlier.

"A-actually t-today is July 12," he said, pointing at the date in the corner.

"So are you saying that I've forgotten more than a year of my life?!" Lili yelled.

Wybie nodded. "A-all of us have."

Everyone looked down at their food, the news sinking into everyone's mind.

It was Norman who broke the silence. "My name is Norman. I live in Blithe Hollow, Massachusetts. According to the newspaper I am 12 years old. Neil is my best friend, and I have no idea why I am in a place like Gravity Falls"

Coraline smiled, realizing what Norman was doing. "My name is Coraline Jones and I'm now 13 years old. My family and I recently … about a year ago we moved to Oregon and are living in a place called the Pink Place. The last thing I remember is Wybie here trying to run me over." She glared at Wybie.

"I'm Wybie but m-my full name is Wyborn Lovat. I-I have lived in Oregon with my Grandma my whole life. Since my G-Grandma owns the Pink Place me and Coraline are neighbors I guess. I d-do kind of remember a girl kind of like Coraline, but that's a bit fuzzy. I am also 12 years old." Wybie introduced.

"Hi! I'm Mabel, but you boys can call me the girl of your dreams! I'm now 12! My twin brother Dipper and I live in Piedmont, California."

"Are you seriously flirting right now?" Lili gawked, rolling her eyes at Mabel's grin. "Whatever. My name is Lili. I'm 11 years old, and given what's happened, I should probably tell you that I am a psychic- "

"Excuse me? What do you think you're trying to pull?" Coraline snapped. "We stranded in a ghost town with no memories and you expect us to believe in the supernatural?"

Norman looked down at the table. He had spent enough time with the two girls to see where this was heading. _Well at least I'm not the only one here with powers._

"I believe her." Mabel exclaimed. "She used them when that creep was shooting at us."

"Look if you have a problem with me then I don't care. The only reason I am still here is to solve this mystery, then you and I will never see each other again." Lili said glaring at Coraline. "Now does anyone else have a problem with my powers?"

Neil, who had his hand raised to ask a question, lowered it. Brushing off the question he continued with the introductions."Um … My name is Neil. I also live in Blithe Hollow and am the same age as Norman. I do remember him. Um … I also like kittens," He said, scratching the back of his head.

"Great, so seeing that introductions are out of the way, what's the plan for the night?" Coraline asked. "The way I see it, all of us are currently in a ghost town with no memories of how we got here."

"Not to mention that that crazy man said that everyone here was kidnapped," Lili added.

"Right. So we either stay here for the night hoping that the kidnapper doesn't find us, or we find a better protected place to stay."

"What about the Mystery Shack?" Norman asked. "We know where it is, and it's not exactly within walking distance."

Coraline contemplated the thought, then spoke, "Alright, everyone good with sleeping in a tourist trap then?"

Everyone nodded, realizing that there was no better option

"Let's get going!" Mabel exclaimed.

* * *

The six of them drove down the dirt road leading to the Mystery Shack. Norman and Neil were riding in the cart with Mabel driving. Where she learned to drive, she had no idea, but seeing that she was the best one at handling the old golf cart no one questioned it too much.

Lili was next to the golf cart on her ball of psychic energy. She was better at using the ball than driving and she liked the feel of using her powers outside of camp without being too judged.

Wybie was on his mechanical bike. Coraline, who still wasn't completely convinced Wybie was guilt free, was seated behind him.

While riding underneath the starry sky, Coraline could not help but lean closer to Wybie. He smelled like freshly cut grass with a hit of motor fluid, and to Coraline this was the best smell in the world.

All too soon did the drive stop. While the others headed inside, Coraline and Wybie stayed on the bicycle.

It was Wybie's cough that broke Coraline out of her spell. Realizing what she was doing, she jumped away from him like he was on fire.

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry" Coraline said, her voice a little higher than usual.

Wybie got off this bicycle. Smiling nervously, he spoke. "It's okay, Jonesy. I'm just glad you didn't fall off while sleeping."

As Wybie walked away Coraline rubbed her cheeks trying to get rid of the blush. _What is wrong with me? He could be the enemy for all I know and here I am cuddling him! Agh!_

"Hey, Jonesy you coming?" Wybie stood next to the door, holding it open for her.

Coraline walked to the dark skinned boy, smiling. "You're such a dork" she replied.

 _But he sure is a nice guy and not bad looking either._ Coraline thought, heading inside.

* * *

"Come on, Raz wake up!" Dipper tried for the thousandth time to wake the goggle-wearing boy.

"Just 5 more minutes" Raz mumbled.

"Raz if you don't wake up I'm dumping the rest of the water on your head"

That seemed to do the trick, as Raz sat up turned around and glared at Dipper. Dipper just smiled and started waking in the direction he knew town was in.

"Come on. Once we get to town we can get a big pile of pancakes at the diner."

Raz groaned, checking that he had everything, then walked off with Dipper.

"Dipper, come on, do we really have to get up this early? The sun is barely up."

"Yes, we need to get to town before any more wolves come after us."

"Or the kidnapper." Raz joked. After the wolf yesterday Raz had come to the conclusion that someone really had kidnapped them. Unfortunately this did nothing to help Dipper's fear about his older twin.

To get his mind off of Mabel, Dipper decided to ask Raz a few questions of his own.

"So Raz, do you have any siblings?"

"Nope, only child dude. What about you?"

"I have a twin sister, her name is Mabel. Where do you live?" Dipper asked before Raz could point out that his sister could have been kidnapped as well.

"Hm ... Oh, I live in the circus." Raz suddenly paused. "Do you hear that?" Raz asked, glancing around. WIth all of his attention focused on the noise, he no longer cared about hiding where he lived.

"The circus? So does that mean you ran away from home or something?"

"No, I was born there. I'm an acrobat. Seriously, do you hear that? It sounds like running water." Raz's mouth ran dry and his hand started to shake. Following Dipper, he walked through the small gap in the bushes, only to stop dead in his tracks.

In front of the two boys was a river. Now, this section of river looked only a few feet deep and the current wasn't very strong. In fact, the two boys could have jumped into the river and they would have only gotten the hem of their shirts wet.

"Looks like we are going to have to cross." Dipper stated grimly, not at all liking that he would be getting his only clothes wet.

"No!" Raz almost shouted.

Dipper, under the assumption that Raz feared very little, turned around. It was then he noticed that the tanned skinned boy was now white as a sheet and clutching the nearest tree as if something was going to grab him.

That's when it made sense to Dipper. Raz, the boy he had been traveling around with, was afraid of water.

"Hey man, it's okay, look, we just have to cross the river and we will be in town." Dipper said, trying to calm his friend down.

"N-no, I'm not going in the water, I'll just find another way around."

Dipper sighed. Finding another way could take days and there was no telling what Raz might get himself into without any help.

"Raz, it will be okay, I can help you across, nothing will happen. Look we can even see the bank" Dipper said slowly approaching Raz.

This was how the hooded figure found them. He smiled underneath the mask he was wearing.

 _So the little psychic brat is afraid of water huh? Well in that case…_ The hooded figure took his chance and pushed the two kids into the river.

* * *

Thank you for all the comments and recognition. I say an anonymous comment on Tumblr about this Fanfic and about near died. You all are wonderful.

I don't own anything but the story line.

This fic is Beta read by Ensignily.


	8. Chapter 7

General Announcement. There is a new Mystery Kids project in the works on Tumblr and they are looking for writers, voice actors, artist, and video editor. If you are interested check out themysterykidsreturn on tumblr for more info.

Now on with the story

* * *

Lili yawned from her place on the floor. Around her the other kids were still snuggled up in their sleeping bags.

Last night the kids had entered the front door of the house part of the shack, only to find the TV room with eight sleeping bags scattered around the room. In front of the TV were a few movies, some of which Lili recognized as some of her favorite cheesy horror movies. If they weren't so tired Lili would have asked if anyone wanted to watch one of them, but after choosing a sleeping bag they all fell asleep.

Standing up, Lili navigated around the other sleeping kids, noting that Mabel was missing from the bunch.

Hungry, Lili walked to the Kitchen only to find Mabel cooking up omelets for everyone.

"Good morning." The girl chimed. "Hope you like omelets."

"That actually sounds pretty good right now." Lili said, sitting down at the table.

"Here you go." Mabel put down a plate with an omelet shaped flower on it. Running back to the stove, Mabel put the rest of the omelets on their own plates. She then returned with her own plate.

While Lili dug into the omelet, Mabel just poked the food.

"What's up?" Lili asked, sensing her new friend's nervousness.

"I just wonder how my brother is doing. We used to do everything together but now he's not here. Lili, what if something happened to him? I'm his big sister, I should be protecting him." Mabel cried, tears welling in her eyes.

"Okay, first, calm down. We are all worried about what might have happened during the last year, but your brother will be fine."

Lili frowned upon seeing that her talk did nothing to calm the girl.

"Why don't we explore a little? We could look up stairs while everyone is sleeping. You might even find something interesting." Lili tried again.

Mabel smiled, "You think we could find some clothes? I don't like wearing the same sweater for more than a day."

Lili nodded. Taking the girl's hand, the two left their discarded breakfast.

* * *

The two boys stopped just short of being pushed in the river, much to the hooded figure's dismay, but the damage was already done.

Without time to even act, a hand rose out of the water and grabbed Raz by the ankle, pulling the two boys into the water. Dipper, free of the hand's grip, came up to the surface. Dipper looked around for his companion in the water and started to panic when Raz didn't come back up.

"Over here," the voice of a little girl called from the deepest part of the river.

Dipper dove towards the voice. He glanced around in the water, looking for the younger boy. Thankfully, the voice was correct, and directly below him Raz lay tangled up in some hands trying desperately to get free.

As Dipper attempted to get closer, a hand swiped at his face and scratched his cheek.

"You cannot have him. He is ours now" A new voice spoke from the depths of the water.

Dipper shook his head and once again reached to try to get Raz free from the hands.

The hands felt a moment of happiness. For so long they had been trying to drown the boy and at last it seemed like they would succeed. They could feel the last of his air escaping from his soon-to-be-still body. Before they could enjoy the final moments of the boy's fading life, however, a bolt of electricity shot through them.

The hands screeched and let go of the poor boy. Dipper, seeing his chance, grabbed Raz and swam as quickly as he could to the surface. An unseen young girl floated in the water a little ways behind, staring down into the river, tracking the movements of the hands.

Breaking the surface, Dipper lead Raz to the closest bank. Dragging them both onto the sandy shore, Dipper took a minute to catch his breath before seeing how Raz was doing.

Raz lay on the beach hacking up as much water as he could trying to clear his lungs. How he hated water. Ever since the curse took his mother he hated going anywhere near any body of water that was deeper than a bath tub.

When Raz calmed down, Dipper spoke. "What in the hell was that!?"

Raz moaned, looking up at Dipper "That is the reason me and water do not mix"

"Yeah but what was **that**?"

A sloshing sound interrupted the two boys. No longer being held back by the invisible ghost girl, the creepy hand was now beckoning Raz back into the water.

Dipper, who was done with the crazy hand business, grabbed a nearby rock and threw it at the hand. The hand retaliated by throwing the nearest object it could grab. A glass cylinder hit Dipper square in the head. Seeing that the hand had done all it could, it turned back into water.

"Feel better" Raz chuckled.

Dipper groaned, shaking his head to get rid of the oncoming headache.

Raz sighed "That was the Galochio curse" said Raz, answering Dipper's question from earlier.

"Galochio curse?"

"Yeah, a rival group of gypsies cursed my entire family to die in water. Whenever we get close to the water … well you saw for yourself."

Dipper started at the boy. He could not remember hearing of anything like a family curse. Sure, back home he would have conspiracies about aliens or supernatural things, but he never could prove that they were real. Yet here was someone who was apparently cursed, and not just him – his whole family.

"What do you think this is?" Raz asked, cutting of Dippers train of thought.

"Huh?" Dipper looked up to see the glass cylinder that he had been hit in the head with earlier.

"Well it looks cool, so I'm keeping it," Raz said, storing the thing in his backpack. "So what now?"

Dipper didn't respond.

"I'm still not crossing the river," Raz said, noticing Dipper smiling.

"You're in luck, you already did." Dipper responded.

Raz looked around seeing that what Dipper said was true. Through everything that happened the two of them had somehow crossed the river and were now on the opposite bank.

"Come on, it's this way to town!" Dipper said, taking the lead once again.

* * *

Posting a little earlier than normal due to the cliff hanger.

I do not own anything but the story.

This fic is Beta read by Ensignily.


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